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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Media Bizarrely Claims Looting in Aftermath of Hurricanes is a “Myth”

The mainstream media has responded to our report about Twitter users flooding the social network with threats to loot in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy by ludicrously claiming that the tweets are all “jokes” and that looting virtually never happens after an extreme weather event, when in every instance it does.

In a story that has gone viral since it was picked up by the Drudge Report, we highlighted numerous tweets from people attempting to join others in exploiting the post-Sandy chaos to go on looting sprees.

Since the hurricane hit the east coast, the first reports of looters being arrested are now coming in.

The Atlantic’s Elspeth Reeve responded by claiming that the tweets were not genuine threats to loot. Her main argument for suggesting this was the fact that one of the users is wearing a chef’s hat in his avatar.

“The Drudge Report is helping to stir up a panic that looters are going to come and take your stuff — yes, you, you right there, sitting in your home, feeling frustrated an vulnerable — you are about to get your stuff stolen by looters,” she writes.

In reality, there is not one place in our article where it is suggested that potential looters are going to attack people in their own homes. Indeed, virtually all of the tweets we highlighted implied that looters would target stores to steal things such as televisions and other electrical goods. Read more....